There’s one mindset shift that isn’t talked about much but that I believe has immense potential to help people make long term lasting changes:

Changing the way you view yourself as a human and your relationship to your environment.

We live in modern times but we are still “animals”. Look in any biology book, we’re homo sapiens. We tend to differentiate ourselves, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are indeed… animals.
We have evolved on our planet for millions of years. Modern day humans… hundreds of thousands of years.

Now take a second to think of yourself from an evolutionary perspective and then… eating a twinkie. Are we built to eat a twinkie? Do our bodies, our biology, understand what that even is? When you think in evolutionary terms and what makes sense from that perspective, everything comes together. Does it make sense that I get my nutrition to fuel my body from a Twinkie made in a lab 2 years ago? Of course not.

We live in modern times and are constantly bombarded by a world we were not designed to live in. Our genes don’t adapt that fast and if we want good health we need to treat our bodies and our environment in a way they understand.

That’s why when I discovered the ancestral food movement (Paleo/Primal/Weston A. Price), I was instantly converted. Thinking about diet and lifestyle from a natural perspective instantly resonated with me. I grew up loving nature, leading backpacking trips, hiking whenever I could. I remember nights staring at the stars away from civilization and connecting with nature in a variety of ways… but somehow:

I never made the connection that food should come from nature

Or that exercise should be based on the natural movements of our ancestors

And even though I was resetting my circadian rhythm out there in the forest… I didn’t know it and went back to a world of bright lights and late nights

When it comes to health, I failed to connect the dots about how far removed we as modern humans are from our ancestral roots. I needed to think logically about our place on earth as humans, how we’ve evolved and what makes sense from an ancestral perspective.

Often times what is making us sick is simply a mismatch between our genetics and our modern world.

For me, changing my perspective to think ancestrally about my health decisions… was everything. I can’t emphasize enough how important this mindset shift is when it comes to connecting dots about your health.

Our bodies are put into a world they just simply can’t adapt fast enough to. We can certainly debate that we’ve adjusted to some degree to grains or dairy (which started becoming widely available about 10,000 years ago), but there’s just no rational biological argument that we are capable of adapting to the post industrial era of “food-like product” at the rate at which it’s being introduced.

Modern living is wreaking havoc on our health.

Sure, we’re not all going to go live off the grid and hunt and gather our own food. BUT, we can make choices that take into account what our bodies are biologically adapted to. We can choose real food. We can spend time in nature. We can reduce our toxins.

So let’s make that mindset shift. Let’s remember, that above all else, we’re animals. Just trying to adapt to the human zoo of modern living.

Navigating the world of health is hard. There’s no one perspective and you’ll find conflicting views on just about everything. So I thought I’d make it super easy for my readers, potential coaching clients and potential students of my courses to understand who I am and what I advocate for when it comes to health.

Here’s my view of health in 1109 words

I most resonate with the paleo movement, but I’m not perfectly paleo

I don’t care much for the “paleo diet”, there is no one paleo diet and we are all unique individuals with unique biology… I believe in a paleo template. Meaning, we root our ideas of what we should eat on ancestral principles and what makes sense from an evolutionary perspective… but aren’t bound by rigid rules. Just because it didn’t exist 10,000 years ago, doesn’t mean it can’t be a part of a healthful diet. We all need to figure out what works best for us.

The reason I am an advocate for the paleo movement is because it makes sense. Simple as that. If I owned a zoo, and had to decide what to feed the animals, I would figure out what their native diet was and try to replicate it. We are no different. In the grand scheme of things, the last 100 years of processed food, and even the last 10,000 years post agriculture is nothing but a tiny blip in human history. I believe we should live in a way that most syncs with our evolutionary history and what our bodies were built to thrive on. It just makes sense.

Of course, no one can quite agree on what that diet was. And that’s fine. It’s just a mindset. We’re learning more and more everyday. Most of those foods don’t even exist in the same form today. It’s simply a baseline to start from and a perspective to take when we make decisions about what we eat and how we live.

I think it’s more important what you take off your plate than put on it

I think the number one step for any diet is to remove the processed food that makes up 80% of your grocery store. That’s what’s weighing you down the most. If you remove processed food, all that’s left is real food. And sure, there’s a lot of debate on what real food is and a large spectrum on quality… but that’s what the next steps are for. Eliminate food-like product made in a lab before anything else. You don’t need to be fueled by chemical sludge.

I don’t like that the health movement is focused on losing weight. It should be focused on HEALTH

Which means not drinking processed chemicals in a can. Sure, it helps you lose weight, but are you gaining health… no. When you make health be about weight, that negates the importance of everything else. What about disease reduction? Feeling vibrant? Reducing the toxins in your life? Sleeping well? Reducing stress? You get the point.

It’s not about losing weight but about GAINING health. Period. Losing weight is a means of gaining health for many people, but the goal should still be HEALTH not weight loss.

I am not a low carb fanatic and don’t resonate as much with that facet of the paleo movement

I absolutely believe a low carb, or even ketogenic diet is the right choice for many people. But it’s not the right choice for everybody. For some, it can have negative implications for health, particularly in regards to hormones. That being said, I don’t advocate a diet with a carb count resembling the Standard American Diet to anyone. I’m simply suggesting that super low-carb diets aren’t for everyone and paleo doesn’t need to be synonymous with low carb. We should all be low carb relative to the obscene carb heavy diets of most of our peers, but some safe starches can absolutely be a healthy and daily part of your diet… if that’s right for your goals.

Toxins are so much more important than most people think

We are surrounded by thousands and thousands of chemicals all day everyday, most of which aren’t regulated and we know very little about. And some of these chemicals… we do know a lot about and it’s not pretty. Sure, they won’t kill us in small quantities, which is why they are “generally regarded as safe”… but the synergistic accumulation of this stuff should be worrisome and is not properly understood by science. We can’t avoid it all, we live in the modern world. But we can make choices to reduce our toxic burden and I think doing this is just as important as what you eat.

You be you and don’t worry about the others

We all have our own pace and our own journeys. Some of us need to be strict, some of us don’t. Some of us switch over to healthy living like it’s no big deal and for some it’s a major emotional adjustment. It’s ok, take your own pace. Progress not perfection. Tomorrow is always a new day.

You may have resistance from the outside world. I say screw em, you’re ahead of the game on your health and you should be proud of that.

Counting macros, keto, crossfit, etc.… start with the basics first

There are a lot of paths to take in the paleo sphere. I’m not crazy on any of these things and you don’t have to be either. OR YOU CAN BE. That’s what’s so great. We are all on our health journeys and can resonate with what we resonate with and make our own choices.

If your main goal is to get lean or be a more optimal athlete, I’m probably not the right person for you. The lifestyle I recommend can naturally make people more lean and fit, but it’s not my focus.

My focus is on helping people GAIN health

I’m all about whole health now and in the future. I know what it feels like to be sick and I also know the power of food and lifestyle to assist the healing journey. That’s why I focus on:

getting people on real food

giving people a mindset shift on what it means to be healthy

pushing the importance of whole health (there’s more to health than food and exercise)

getting past misconceptions and misinformation

helping people reduce their risk of disease or manage existing disease

helping people live optimal lives

When it comes to healthcare, you want to utilize functional medicine

When it comes to healthcare and seeing a professional to deal with your health issues, you want to find someone who looks at health from a root cause perspective not a pill for every ill mentality. Functional medicine strives to reduce disease by finding the root cause rather than simply suppressing symptoms which is the mainstream medical model. To truly heal, you need to be viewed as a whole, unique individual.

Want to take your health into your own hands? Tired of diets? Ready to join a lifestyle? The paleo lifestyle is not about dieting, it’s about lifestyling… it’s not about losing weight, it’s about GAINING health.

Take the questionnaire to see if the paleo lifestyle is right for you! Click below for the PDF version or stay on this page for text only. Enjoy!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS?

In the paleo diet, it’s not just “you are what you eat,” it’s “you are what your food eats.” Animals that are raised in their natural habitats eating their natural foods are less inflammatory and have higher nutrient density.

DO YOU THINK YOU’LL FEEL BETTER WITHOUT ADDED SUGARS IN YOUR DIET?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO STOP DIETING AND START LIFESTYLING?

Diets are about losing weight, but it should be about GAINING health. It’s about making changes for optimal health over the course your life, not just temporary weight loss.

ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR PESTICIDE EXPOSURE?

Approximately 3000 toxins, by law, are excluded from certified organic products. Regulators do not have sufficient comprehensive research regarding consumption of multiple types of pesticides and their impact on human health over the long term.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO IMPROVE YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM?

Want to get sick less? By eating a nutrient dense diet, getting plenty of sunshine and vitamin d and reducing exposure to toxins that burden your body…

you improve your immune system!

DO YOU THINK FAT TASTES GOOD?

The paleo diet doesn’t fear fat. High quality fat is full of necessary nutrients and are essential for brain health.

Most people think fat tastes good. How could you not? You won’t feel deprived without low calorie low fat garbage!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SLEEP BETTER AND STRESS LESS?

You’d be surprised how much food influences stress and sleep. Numerous studies show the connection between sugar and other processed foods and mood, stress and sleep!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE A CLEANER LIFE?

The toxins in our environment and products are just as important as our food. The paleo lifestyle is all about living in a way our bodies understand, a world with minimal chemical exposure.

CAN YOU DITCH THE INFLAMMATORY GRAINS?

Grains contain anti-nutrients like gluten, phytates, lectins and more. These can bind to nutrients, cause inflammation and lead to intestinal permeability.

DO YOU THINK THERE’S VALUE IN GETTING MORE VITAMINS, MINERALS, PHYTONUTRIENTS AND ANTIOXIDANTS IN YOUR DIET?

Your body is built to receive a wide variety of nutrition of real foods. Everything in the paleo diet is a real food.

DOES THE CHRONIC LONG TERM EXPOSURE TO TOXINS CONCERN YOU?

It should. Regulation of chemicals is inadequate and we have no idea the harm that is being caused to human health.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXERCISE SMARTER NOT MORE?

Did you know exercising more isn’t always better? By exercising like our primal relatives, we make full body movements, have occasional high intensity workouts and do plenty of everyday movements like walking. No chronic cardio here.

Losing weight is a poor motivator because it’s superficial and assumes that there are no other reasons why one would “diet.” It’s easy to give up when motivations are superficial, more than two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese after all… it’s normal (NIH obesity stats).

When you’re eating healthy and making lifestyle changes in order to gain health, everything changes.

Suddenly that candy bar is not just that thing you can’t eat because it makes you fat. It’s an item that is full of processed chemicals and high sugar that are not contributing to your optimal health.

They are making you sick.

Whether you feel it or not, by providing your body with something that doesn’t nourish, you’re negatively influencing your health. The sugar and random artificial ingredients in that candy bar aren’t directly or immediately causing diabetes or a host of other preventable chronic diseases. But over time, the cumulative result of making the “it’s ok” choice day after day might. It’s like the analogy of the frog in the water: put a frog into boiling water and it immediately jumps out, however, slowly turn up the heat and eventually the frog will die. Slowly by slowly we are making ourselves sick. (Just to be clear, I’m not saying a candy bar here or there is going to kill you).

You want to put things into your body that bring wellness, reduce disease risk, and make you feel vibrant. Luckily, losing weight is a much appreciated byproduct. When you change your line of thinking towards wellness, your motivations change. It’s easier to be motivated by the whole picture than simply a part.

Dieting misses the mark entirely.

You can “diet” by taking weight loss pills, eating processed NutriSystem or Slim Fast meals every day. While those diets may help you lose weight, they are deleterious to your overall health.

Moving beyond food, lifestyle changes encompass so much more.

While you should nourish yourself with nutrient dense food, optimal health also requires sleeping well, living purposefully, exercising the right way, and minimizing exposure to toxins through air, water, beauty and everyday products in the home. That’s where the lifestyle comes in.

When the focus is on gaining health, it includes more than just food and that’s when true health arises. It’s amazing what diet and lifestyle changes can do to heal (and lose weight… we all know that’s a happily accepted perk!).

I’m more addicted to my iPhone than I care to admit.

I’m fully aware that artificial blue light at night suppresses the secretion of melatonin. It’s not good for our circadian rhythm, it’s not good for our health, and some research even shows that it can increase the risk of major chronic diseases, including cancer.

It’s complicated so I won’t get into the details of why you should avoid blue light at night. If you’d like a quick catch up, please read the following article from Harvard Health Publications:

So you want to use your iPhone at night but you don’t want to be exposed to blue light?

What I used to do is wear fancy amber tinted glasses, but now that I co-sleep with a toddler, that doesn’t work very well. There’s no way my toddler is wearing amber tinted glasses. Not because I wouldn’t think to do such a thing, but because he’ll rip his and mine off in 2 seconds flat. I’m usually on the phone AFTER he falls asleep, but the light still brightens up the room and I think he’ll wake up in a second at the opportunity to play with my glasses. I want my baby to have his melatonin! In addition to having a lamp with an amber light bulb…

I utilize a little known iPhone hack to make my screen red.

This is not to be confused with the iPhone’s nighttime mode which tints your phone (that’s useful too), this makes your phone RED. Your entire screen is overlayed with a red filter. You must have ios 10 installed for this to work. I have an iPhone 6, I haven’t confirmed it works on earlier versions but I assume so.

The way this is done is using the iPhone accessibility features. First you’ll set up your color tint, and then you’ll enable an accessibility shortcut to switch back and forth in 3 easy clicks. (There are many steps so this is not something you want to do every night!).

Live Clean Nourish is about the whole. Health is more than food and exercise. Going even further, it’s more than sleep, stress, and good relationships.

We live in modern times and are constantly bombarded by a world we were not designed to live in.

We’ve evolved over millions of years, but the modern world that our bodies deal with every second of every day has only existed for up to a few hundred years (many of the chemicals we’re exposed to) or a few thousand years (modern agriculture).

As a result, if we want good health we need to treat our bodies and our environment in a way they understand. Our genes don’t adapt that fast.

Obviously, times have changed. The food we see today isn’t the food our ancestors ate. We’d be hard pressed to avoid breathing in polluted air or drinking water without impurities. Modern life is great: I wouldn’t want to be a caveman and I certainly wouldn’t trade it to go back in time. That being said, we can live as optimally as possible with an understanding that perfection doesn’t exist. I don’t live off the grid, and I don’t want to. I like my computer. If I’m in a car accident, I sure as hell want someone to stitch me up. It’s not about perfection, it’s about being realistic about the world that you live in.

There are many lifestyle changes that one can make to optimize yourself for living in today’s world. Live naturally, purposefully, connect with others, enjoy sunshine and spend time in nature. Clean your environment and body from everyday burdens, use clean ingredients in your products, and fuel yourself with ingredients you can pronounce. Nourish with real food that doesn’t come in a box. Let food be thy medicine.